Rap, in essence, is a form of poetry. Rap is similar to SLAM poetry and spoken word in that the focus is on the show and delivery as much as, or even more than, the message. Lyricists love wordplay. Mastering wordplay involves mastering several different skills. Lyricists must have an arsenal of homophones (words that sound the same with different meanings), oronyms (phrases that sound the same but are different), be able to allude to topics their fans understand, have a mastery of metaphors and similes and know when they’re appropriate, and create complicated multiple syllable rhyme schemes. Wordplay in rap and hip hop and be categorized by the type of wordplay and the skills used to create the play on words.
One form is wordplay is using different words or phrases that sound the same, sort of like a pun. For example, Conceited in his battle versus Illmaculate, “My guns like Pokemon, I’ll peek at you and blast toys.” Did you catch that? Pikachu and Blastoise are both Pokemon. Arsonal took a different approach in his battle with Shotty Horroh, who’s real name is Adam. Arsonal said, “ So I went on twitter to add him / I found out his name was Adam / So I gotta break down this atom. / See the definition of atom is a basic unit of matter / so when your mother named you Adam she was inferring that basically you didn’t matter.” Pat Stay is another rapper that likes name flipping, “His name’s Cane cause he don’t stand a chance on his own,” for example.
A more complicated form of wordplay is a double entendre. Double entendres can be very complex and are not always heard the first time around. A double entendre is simply a bar that contains more than one meaning. Bill Bryson calls double entendres by a different name, calling it amphibology. Bryson’s example is “Customers who think our waiters are rude should see the manager.” Sounds easy, but it’s much harder to do. Loaded Lux’s battle verses are usually loaded with double entendres that sometimes make his battles more interesting to hear the second time around. Against Hollow Da Don, he said “And why it always take a black mother banging on the box for you niggas to get the picture?” First meaning being the mother banging on the television to get the picture to come up. But deeper than that, Lux is saying that Hollow should stop glorifying “street life” because he won’t understand (get the picture) how it really is until he sees his friend’s mom banging on her dead son’s coffin (banging on the box) in grief.
The final type of wordplay is rhyming, arguably the easiest form of wordplay. Creating multiple syllable rhymes is a lot more complicated than simple one syllable rhymes. Surely, you could come of with 5 words that rhyme with fear at a moment’s notice. But how many rhymes do you have for rope and plastic?
On Hellbound, Eminem had several. “Wrap you in rope and plastic / stab you with broken glass / And have you with open gashes strapped to a soakin mattress / Coke and acid, black magic, cloaks and daggers. If you’re interested in seeing a more complicated verse from Eminem, check here.
Wordplay has become a large part of and rap, more than just the rhyming. Wordplay is taking the battle rap industry by storm. Opponents are lessening on personal attacks and instead are using nameflips, double entendres, and rhyme schemes that are more complicated than ever. The crowds are eating it up, for now. But how long will the wordplay craze in rap last?